The logical thoughts that lie behind the daring assertion of Krishna are being indicated in this stanza. When a man of evil ways takes to a life of single-pointed devotion propelled by his ardent resolve, that man “SOON BECOMES RIGHTEOUS.” The term Dharma was already explained as “the Law of Being.” Just as heat is the specific quality (Dharma) of fire, without which fire cannot exist, the Dharma of man is the Divine Atman in his heart, without which none of his personality layers can ever come to express themselves. Therefore, the term ‘Dharmatma,’ in the stanza, is not fully expressed when it is translated as ‘a man of righteousness.’
Single-pointed devotion and self-application develop concentration, and therefore, enhance the subtlety of perception of the mind, and such a mind finds its balance even in the highest altitudes of meditative flights. “IN GOOD TIME,” meaning, ere long, he gains glimpses of the Infinite experience and thus, comes to live more and more as a dynamic saint, wafting the fragrance of divinity through his motives, thoughts, and actions.
This substantial edifice of peace which strengthens and fortifies the existence in us, is the tranquillity divine, which we come to live as our essential being when the mind stops its mad revelry among its agitations and excitements. There is no religion in the world which does not point to this goal, which can be experienced when the mind is at rest. A still mind is an open window through which man peeps out to see himself reflected in the mirror of Truth. The term guaranteeing here that “a true devotee soon REACHES the Supreme Peace,” is to be rightly understood not as a destination that lies far away from us, but only as a REDISCOVERY IN OURSELVES OF OUR OWN REAL NATURE.
The perfection indicated in religion lies only as far away from us as our waking state is from our dream. It is a question of rightly adjusting the focus; if a camera is ‘out of focus’ the photograph will give only a blurred representation of fairyland, while the same scene photographed by the same camera, well-focussed and adjusted, gives us the photograph in all its gorgeous beauty, and wealth of detail. A mind and intellect, mal-adjusted and incessantly getting shunted among the ever-rising waves of desires and passions, are not the right instruments to cognise and discover the Truth that lies within itself.
The second line of the stanza brings out the incomparable missionary in Krishna, who bursts out into an assertion, in his own rising fire and enthusiasm. After declaring the truth that even a man of dire evil ways can start his pilgrimage on the very day he takes unto himself the firm resolve to re-educate his mind, and after indicating the stages of his growth, till he reaches the Supreme Peace, Krishna, as it were, pats Arjuna on the back and declares “MY DEVOTEE IS NEVER DESTROYED.”
Toeing the line of the Rishis, Krishna says that Arjuna should declare from house-tops the one unchallengeable truth that the seeker of the nobler values shall know no failure if his resolve is firm and if he be sincere in his self-application. The special phrase, employed here to declare Krishna’s advice to Arjuna, Pratijaneehi, has, in Sanskrit, its own special powers of assertion, and it can express a sort of imperative urgency. Those who are students of the Sanskrit language can easily perceive it; those who are not, may make a note of the same.
In short, this and the previous stanza together express that he who has come to entertain constantly, at least in one corner of his mind, a continuous awareness of the Divine Principle and allows it to influence the rest of his mental field, is the one marked out for progress and growth, both in his life within and in his life without. Just as a blue street light adds a blue tinge to the colour of the dresses of all those who pass under it, irrespective of the actual colour of their various dresses, so too, in the blaze of Divine Awareness, even criminal thoughts rising in that mind would gather the golden hues of godly perfections. Just as moth-balls kept in a wardrobe protect all the clothes kept therein and keep away all the worms, so too, the constant Samarana of the Divine Nature of the Self protects the human personality from the destructive worms of its inner negativeness.
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